East Cobb News

East Cobb Church donates new box truck to Simple Needs GA

November 26, 2020 7:52 AM by Wendy Parker

Simple Needs GA box truck

Submitted information and photo:

Members of East Cobb Church have responded to the pressing needs of the poor in Cobb County by buying Simple Needs GA a brand-new box truck for picking up and delivering furniture.

In addition to the donation of the 16-foot GMC Savana box truck, the congregation also made a large financial donation that will cover the cost of insurance and maintenance for the vehicle over the course of its lifetime.

More than 250 church members also purchased about 3,000 full-sized toiletries and other useful items for distribution by SNGA to shelter check-ins and people experiencing homelessness in Cobb County.

Taken together, the gifts are by far the largest donation in the history of the Marietta-based nonprofit.

As a result, SNGA will no longer need to spend large sums of money to rent box trucks for picking up and delivering furniture and household items as part of its Simple Household Needs program, said Brenda Rhodes SNGA Founder and President.

“The donation of the box truck gives our volunteers much more capacity for picking up and delivering furniture as needed,” she noted. “We’ve already been making pickups and deliveries with the truck and have seen firsthand how being more efficient will allow us to help many more people over time.”

Located at 2450 Lower Roswell Rd., East Cobb Church was founded in January 2020.

The donation came as part of its first-ever “Be Rich” campaign, which gets its name from 1 Timothy 6:18 (“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”).

The goal of the fundraising portion was to help SNGA with its furniture logistics challenges. “Our volunteers often had to scramble to find a way to get much-needed furniture and household items to our clients in Cobb County,” Rhodes noted.

Initially, though, Pastor Jamey Dickens assumed the campaign would bring in enough money to buy the nonprofit a used pickup truck—not a far-more-expensive, brand-new box truck, he said. Dickens and Katie Peters, a pastoral counselor at East Cobb Church who coordinated the campaign, asked the church’s roughly 800 members to each donate at least $39.95.

The outpouring of generosity that resulted was remarkable, Dickens said. “The money just came pouring in,” he said.

On October 23, East Cobb Church delivered the truck to SNGA’s Marietta warehouse near Cobb Parkway to the applause and tears of SNGA board members, volunteers and other contributors.

Already deeply involved in community service, members of East Cobb Church were well aware of the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on the poor and were eager to answer the call when the Be Rich campaign was launched, Dickens said.

“Our people deserve a major shout out and so does Katie, who did a fantastic job leading this effort,” he said. “We’re grateful, too, for how God has led and moved in our church.”

As Dickens sees it, the successful campaign illustrates the power of people coming together as a community to help others.

“I loved that it was a very large group effort,” he said. “The ask was just basic, but people stepped up and did what they could—and look at what happened. People give where their heart is engaged.”

Hearts at Simple Needs GA were touched as well, said Yolanda Kingsberry, a member of SNGA’s board and frequent furniture volunteer.

“We’re so fortunate to live in a community of generous supporters who value our work and want to help us help others,” she said. “We will make East Cobb Church proud by using this truck to bring comfort to many more deserving families.”

In a reflection of the generosity of our community at this time, the largest prior donation to SNGA also came during the pandemic when Linked UP Church in Powder Springs donated $14,250 to SNGA this past summer.

Founded in 2010, SNGA has distributed thousands of duffel bags of full-sized toiletries to shelter check-ins and people experiencing homelessness. Among other activities, the Marietta-based nonprofit last year brought birthday presents and other useful items to more than 270 homeless children; brought furniture and household items to 151 clients; and provided 166 children in 64 families with $100 in requested Christmas gifts.

For more information about SNGA, email brenda@simpleneedsga.org.

East Cobb traffic update: Shallowford Road reopens after crash

November 30, 2020 6:32 PMNovember 25, 2020 12:48 PM by Wendy Parker

Shallowford Road crash

Fundraiser started for family of crash victim

UPDATED 2:58 PM: Cobb Police say all lanes are reopened and the crash scene has been cleared.

ORIGINAL STORY:
Shallowford Road at Lassiter Road eastbound is closed after a multi-vehicle crash with what appear to be serious injuries.

Westbound traffic is open but moving slowly in sight of a scene involving at least three cars.

We were in the area and saw an ambulance crew wheel a passenger away who had been sitting on the sidewalk; Cobb Police investigators were just getting to the scene and asking bystanders for initial information. There also are two Cobb Fire/EMS crews standing by.

All three cars had spun near a bank in front of a CVS store at the intersection; one landed near the intersection and another is covered with a blue tarp. An SUV suffered less damage and the passengers provided some eyewitness information.

A woman who was in her car when the crash took place said she didn’t see the collision but said “there were cars flying everywhere.”

We’ll update when we have more information.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb Board of Education adopts legislative priorities for 2021

November 25, 2020 11:25 AM by Wendy Parker

Submitted information:

In the first Board meeting since all Cobb students have had the choice to return to face-to-face learning, the Cobb Schools Board of Education voted to approve the following legislative priorities for the 2020-21 school year: educational access, financial sustainability, and accuracy in accountability.

“With all that has happened to public education since COVID-19, these legislative priorities are even more important than normal. During a pandemic when everything will be more complicated than ever, the needs of our students and teachers are how we came to these priorities and are who we will be supporting going into this legislative session,” said Cobb Schools Board Chair Brad Wheeler.

As demonstrated since March, policies, and funding to support educational access for all students, in both remote or face-to-face classrooms, is more important than it ever has been. Steps to ensure educational access for all students include strengthening the teacher pipeline, sustaining the teachers’ retirement system, and maintaining or increasing Title I allocations. Fully funding classrooms for students and teachers by funding the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula is the most important part of keeping Cobb Schools financially sustainable. Although due to COVID-19, instruction has looked different this year, the costs for the buildings, utilities, teachers, and staff are called “fixed costs.” To support these fixed costs, the way schools are funded—which is based on Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)—should be based on counts equal to or greater than those taken in March 2020. The school board also determined that financial sustainability, now and in the future, depends on funds not being diverted from public education. As with the other two legislative priorities, the BOE’s final priority has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically impacted the way students learn. Accuracy in accountability focuses on reducing the impact of standardized testing, ensuring flexibility around CCRPI, and applying charter waivers to SWSS Systems.

Walton High School graduate receives Rhodes Scholarship

November 25, 2020 4:39 PMNovember 25, 2020 8:09 AM by Wendy Parker

Sam Patterson, Walton graduate Rhodes Scholarship

Sam Patterson, a 2017 graduate of Walton High School, has received a Rhodes Scholarship.

A senior at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, he’s one of 32 American students awarded the prestigious scholarship each year, which supports graduate study at the University of Oxford in England.

Here’s more from UMBC about Sam and what he wants to study at Oxford and his plans beyond that:

Patterson will pursue an M.Sc. in the Nature, Society, and Environmental Governance program at Oxford focusing on the economics of transportation. This research area will take full advantage of his three undergraduate degrees from UMBC. This spring, Patterson will earn bachelor of science degrees in mathematics and statistics and a bachelor of arts in economics.

A Meyerhoff Scholar and member of the Honors College, Patterson has steadily nurtured his interest in transportation economics at UMBC and through intensive summer internships. He conducted research supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at Harvard University with the Harvard Leadership Alliance and at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Most recently, at the National Bureau of Economic Research, he evaluated trends in transportation changes in urban centers due to the pandemic.

A strong network of support has been a cornerstone of Patterson’s UMBC experience. “From the Meyerhoff Scholars program to the Honors College to Dr. Householder to Naomi Mburu [UMBC’s first Rhodes Scholar] to my recommenders and mock interviewers and beyond, I’ve never had so many people on my team before, pushing me to achieve something I’m pursuing,” Patterson shares.

A transformative opportunity

Originally from Marietta, Georgia, Patterson’s education and internships have taken him around the U.S. However, he has never traveled abroad, so the Rhodes Scholarship offers a unique opportunity for him to broaden his perspective by studying in the U.K. and visiting other European countries. He hopes to further deepen his understanding of challenges—and potential solutions—related to a range of transportation systems.

“I’m so excited to go to the U.K.! I think it will do wonders for my research when I experience the European perspective on public transportation and its place in society and sustainability,” Patterson says. “There are so many brilliant academics at Oxford that I’m raring to meet. I just feel so fortunate to be where I am and to be going where I’m going.”

After Oxford, Patterson already has plans to attend Harvard University for a Ph.D. Before he gets there, though, Patterson and his mentors have no doubt the Rhodes experience will be transformative.

“The Rhodes Scholarship is a life-changing opportunity for exceptional young people with the potential to make a difference for good in the world. Sam has that mixture of grit and excellence that is the best of what UMBC represents,” Householder says. “His experience in the U.K. will enrich not only his academic path, but also his personal journey in so many profound ways. I can’t wait to see what he will accomplish.”

Cobb: Government shredding didn’t include Elections Office

November 24, 2020 6:26 PM by Wendy Parker

For the second time in a week, Cobb County Government is saying that shredding activities at one of its facilities didn’t involve ballots.

According to a message sent out Tuesday, nothing from the Cobb Elections Office was shredded at all in the latest allegations.

County spokesman Ross Cavitt said in a statement late Tuesday afternoon that a video was being posted on social media that:

“Purportedly shows a shredding company at the building housing the main office for Cobb Elections on Whitlock Avenue in Marietta. This building houses many other Cobb County governmental offices, and the document disposal company was at the building as part of a regularly-scheduled visit to the Cobb Tax Commissioner’s office. No items from Cobb Elections were involved.”

Cavitt didn’t say who posted the video, but it came from Lin Wood, a prominent Atlanta attorney who’s filed a lawsuit for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, charging voter fraud.

Susan Knox is on it again. The photos & video to follow were taken by her today. Cobb County Patriots need to DEMAND answers.

It is critically important to get the word to many – @realDonaldTrump WON the election by a landslide. Biden is a criminal. China is the ENEMY. pic.twitter.com/1I8f1faRrj

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) November 24, 2020

Democratic former vice president Joe Biden leads in Georgia by less than 13,000 votes as a machine recount of the presidential voting got underway Tuesday.

Cobb Elections workers were conducting that recount at Jim Miller Park, several miles away from the main office, as they did during a hand recount that was completed last week. All elections materials related to the second recount, including ballots, are being stored there.

On Friday, Wood posted on his Twitter account an allegation that election documents were possibly being destroyed in Cobb. County elections director Janine Eveler responded by saying that only documents that were “not relevant” to the election were shredded after the hand recount was done.

Wood posted a few more times Tuesday on his Twitter account, which has more than 592,000 followers. Knox is identified several times as a “Georgia Patriot,” but she responded to Wood to say that the videos were shot by someone else who wished to remain anonymous.

Knox is a business development executive based in East Cobb.

In another Tweet, Wood wrote that “Biden is a crook. Cabala Harris is a Communist Sympathizer. This was NEVER about an election. It is part of an attempt to take over control of our country. I would NEVER incite violence. I urge ALL to pray.”

Biden won more than 56 percent of the vote in Cobb County.

Wood also Tweeted Tuesday that Sidney Powell, an attorney dismissed by the Trump campaign over the weekend, will be filing an election lawsuit in Georgia Wednesday.

North Point East Cobb church plans: 4 stories, 1,300 seats

November 25, 2020 5:37 PMNovember 24, 2020 11:43 AM by Wendy Parker

North Point East Cobb church plans

A few more details about North Point Ministries’ plans for a church and townhome project at the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford intersection have been posted in the Cobb Zoning Office filings on the application, which is scheduled to be heard next Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission.

The 33 acres sits on land owned by prominent attorney Fred Hanna and his wife’s outreach ministry, and which they tried to assemble for a residential project in 2016 that was withdrawn.

North Point is proposing a 4-story building for what it’s calling East Cobb Church with close to 125,000 square feet, including a sanctuary seating capacity of nearly 1,300, according to the revised filing.

(You can read it here.)

East Cobb Church is the seventh congregation overall and the first in Cobb County for North Point Ministries, which is based in Alpharetta and was founded by Andy Stanley. He’s the son of Charles Stanley, the retired longtime pastor at First Baptist Church in Buckhead.

North Point’s campuses in Alpharetta and Buckhead have sanctuary seating capacities of around 3,000.

The new East Cobb congregation was formed in January and has been meeting at Eastside Baptist Church on Lower Roswell Road.

The East Cobb Church building (in the top left corner of the site plan above) would have a parking deck—details still not revealed—fronting Shallowford and a parking lot along Johnson Ferry.

The Cobb Zoning Office has done its analysis, and is recommending a denial, for traffic, density, land-use and other reasons.

For starters, staff analyst Jeannie Peyton concludes the the proposal doesn’t permit a use “that is suitable in the view of use and development of adjacent and nearby properties. The property is in an area with commercial and lower density residential uses.”

The application includes 125 townhomes located in the back of the property assemblage, bisected by Waterfront Drive, which has access from Johnson Ferry and connects to the Johnson Ferry Estates subdivision.

Nearby residential properties are zoned for R-20 single-family use, while the townhomes, proposed for the RM-8 zoning designation, would come in at a density of 11.55 units an acre.

The staff is recommending density of no more than 5 units an acre. The rezoning request calls for townhomes of at least 1,800 square feet, but doesn’t indicate a price range.

North Point has not filed a traffic study, which staff is recommending, and the proposal to close off Waterfront Drive also was noted by Peyton as a concern.

Capacity at nearby schools—Pope HS, Hightower Trail MS and Shallowford Falls ES—also would be negatively affected by the townhomes, according to the staff analysis.

Above all, Peyton wrote, the application doesn’t conform to the county’s comprehensive land-use plan.

“The property is delineated in LDR and NAC future land use categories,” the report concluded. “The requested zoning districts are not consistent with the LDR and NAC future land use designations. Staff has concerns about how this fits with the recently adopted JOSH study.”

That’s the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford Master Plan that was approved in September after a community process of more than two years.

Another major item in East Cobb that was to have been on the December zoning calendar is being delayed again.

The Sprayberry Crossing case, which first was scheduled for September, has been continued ever since then.

The Cobb Zoning Staff has continued the application once more, until February. Zoning cases are not heard in Cobb County in January.

Official Georgia machine recount begins in presidential race

November 24, 2020 9:05 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb presidential hand recount — *A hand recount finished last week cut Joe Biden’s lead in Georgia to just under 13,000 votes.*

An automatic recount of votes in the presidential race in Georgia began on Tuesday, the third such tabulation in a razor-close battle.

Cobb Elections workers are working from 9-5 Tuesday and Wednesday and the same hours next Monday and Tuesday, and from 9 a.m. until finishing next Wednesday, Dec. 2.

That’s the deadline set by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to elections offices across the state.

A hand recount finished on Friday had Democratic former vice president Joe Biden with a 12,670-vote lead over Republican President Donald Trump in Georgia.

Biden has 49.51 percent of the vote compared to 49.25 percent for Trump, which falls within the 0.5 percent threshold for a recount in Georgia.

Trump has not conceded, three weeks after the election, as his campaign is filing challenges in other states, including Pennsylvania, where he was trailing Biden by 150,000 votes.

Adding to the drama over the weekend were charged remarks by Sidney Powell, an attorney on Trump’s legal team who said she would “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” voter fraud lawsuit.

The Trump campaign quickly cut ties with Powell.

The machine recount will be done by machine and the results will become official. Georgia’s elections board certified all election results last Thursday, but the Trump campaign asked for the formal recount after the hand count was finished.

That was the first time Georgia has done a hand recount. Like that process, the machine recount will add up nearly 5 million votes cast by Georgians in the presidential race.

The public is invited to observe the Cobb Elections recount, which like the hand recount is taking place at Jim Miller Park (2245 Calloway Road, Marietta).

East Cobb UMC drive-up COVID testing site draws long lines

November 30, 2020 3:15 PMNovember 23, 2020 4:07 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb rapid COVID-19 testing

This was the scene Monday morning westbound on Roswell Road between East Piedmont Road and Sewell Mill Road: Long lines at a rapid COVID-19 pop-up facility at East Cobb United Methodist Church.

Conducted by Viral Solutions, a private company, the rapid-testing set-up includes a drive-through tent in the parking lot of the church sanctuary.

No appointments are needed, and there are no out-of-pocket costs for the tests, according to Viral Solutions, which says it’s accepting all forms of insurance.

These are the standard “PCR” tests, which detect the presence of the COVID-19 virus, and they’re the most common form of COVID test. The test results are reported in 24-36 hours.

This is one of five pop-up sites in metro Atlanta for Viral Solutions.

The location at East Cobb UMC (2325 Roswell Road) is open from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1-5 p.m. Monday-Friday (with a lunch break from 12:30-1) and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Cobb and Douglas Public Health is continuing free COVID-19 test this week, including Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Life University in Marietta.

Free testing also takes place at Jim Miller Park. For more information click here.

East Cobb voters stick with Trump but Biden wins precincts

November 23, 2020 1:18 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb voters Trump Biden — *Joe Biden won most of the precincts (in green) and 56 percent of the presidential vote in Cobb County against Donald Trump. For more details, **click here**.*

After Georgia certified election results Friday that included a win for Joe Biden in the presidential race, Donald Trump’s campaign has asked for an official recount.

That comes after a hand recount across the state upheld a slender advantage for Biden, of less than 13,000 votes.

Those figures didn’t change much in Cobb County, which for the second presidential election in a row was won by a Democrat.

Joe Biden won 56 percent of the vote in Cobb and most of the precincts, as indicated in green in the Georgia Secretary of State’s map above.

Trump won most of the precincts in East Cobb, but Biden won 13 of those 48 precincts and outperformed Hillary Clinton in some areas as well as countywide.

Biden received 221,846 votes in Cobb to 165,459 for Trump. In 2016, Clinton got 160,121 votes to 152,912 for Trump to become the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter to win the county.

Cobb Democrats have gained more ground since then. They won all countywide races they contested this year, including Cobb Commission Chair, Sheriff, District Attorney and Superior Court Clerk.

In January, an all-female and a Democratic-majority Cobb Board of Commissioners will take office, headed by current commissioner Lisa Cupid, the first Democratic chair since 1984.

Like other metro Atlanta suburban areas, Cobb was coveted political territory for Democrats this year, as illustrated by The New York Times in a precinct shift analysis last week.

East Cobb Republican legislative incumbents were re-elected, but a few of those races were close, as was Cobb Board of Education Post 5, where GOP incumbent David Banks held on for a fourth term.

Last week Cobb Elections issued its “Statement of Votes Cast” report, which is a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of all the election results (you can read through it here). For reference here are the 2016 precinct results.

A table of the presidential vote in East Cobb precincts in 2020 includes an asterisk next to the precinct-winning total; the Bells Ferry 2 precinct ended in a tie (indicated in beige on the map).

	Trump	Biden	Turnout %
Addison	930	990*	80.52
Bells Ferry 2	1127 (tie)	1127 (tie)	74.45
Bells Ferry 3	768	871*	69.62
Blackwell	908	1113*	76.98
Chattahoochee	986	2860*	66.34
Chestnut Ridge	1446*	1215	86.08
Davis	857*	807	81.84
Dickerson	1209*	1149	85.54
Dodgen	921*	810	85.19
East Piedmont	782	1077*	72.33
Eastside 1	1325*	1200	85.33
Eastside 2	1698*	1601	83.48
Elizabeth 2	1022*	864	79.01
Elizabeth 3	1226*	1014	82.80
Elizabeth 4	715	1077*	69.35
Elizabeth 5	1103	1168*	80.48
Fullers Park	1436*	1374	83.40
Garrison Mill	1211*	1105	82.42
Gritters	1578*	1359	75.20
Hightower	1858*	1640	84.47
Kell	853*	690	79.36
Lassiter	1613*	1316	82.84
Mabry	833*	538	85.27
McCleskey	810*	609	84.04
Marietta 6A	374	1184*	59.69
Marietta 6B	970	1283*	79.90
Mt. Bethel 1	1760*	1626	84.56
Mt. Bethel 3	1299	1344*	82.00
Mt. Bethel 4	1305*	1094	82.79
Murdock	1722*	1598	84.11
Nicholson	969*	843	76.05
Pope	1349*	1173	82.33
Post Oak	1680*	1289	82.79
Powers Ferry	1213	1287*	73.698
Rocky Mount	1441*	1234	80.88
Roswell 1	2387*	2141	86.01
Roswell 2	1545*	1518	85.03
Sandy Plains	1117	1192*	81.25
Sewell Mill 1	1334	1481*	82.22
Sewell Mill 3	1249	1859*	67.20
Shallowford Falls	1487*	1294	84.62
Simpson	738*	756	81.85
Sope Creek 1	970*	835	85.76
Sope Creek 2	1632	1963*	78.28
Sope Creek 3	1213*	1089	80.91
Terrell Mill	1030	2477*	61.97
Timber Ridge	1025*	1016	85.42
Willeo	1270*	1079	85.19

East Cobb Park to hold ‘Virtual Holiday Lights’ celebration

November 23, 2020 10:33 AM by Wendy Parker

Holiday Lights at East Cobb Park

There won’t be an in-person Holiday Lights event at East Cobb Park this year due to COVID-19, but the Friends for the East Cobb Park organization will be presenting a virtual celebration for the public instead.

That’s slated for Sunday, Dec. 6, starting at 6 p.m., and you can watch all the festivities on the Friends’ Facebook page.

Those festivities will be beamed via a livestream—caroling, a message from Santa Claus, and the tree lighting.

A number of other holiday events in the East Cobb area have gone virtual or have been altered, and most of the area’s holiday craft fairs have been cancelled or have gone online.

Earlier this week, the Mountain View Arts Alliance—which stages the Empty Bowl Brunch at The Art Place—announced an Empty Bowl Gift Bag sale that includes a cookbook with recipes from 20 years of the event.

The park was closed for several weeks in the spring, and in September the Friends group began sponsoring Sunday Funday concerts, typically held in the late afternoon daylight hours and with social-distancing and masking protocols.

The presenting sponsor for those events, as well as Holiday Lights, has been Wellstar.

Cobb Chamber, CCF award $27K in Operation Meal Plan grants

November 23, 2020 8:06 AM by Wendy Parker

Operation Meal Plan grants

Submitted information and photo:

On Thursday, November 19th, Cobb Community Foundation awarded $27,000 in grants, wrapping up the final phase of Operation Meal Plan. The initiative began in March of this year with the Cobb Chamber of Commerce and Cobb Community Foundation (“CCF”) partnering to provide food to those in need, help local restaurants keep their workers employed, and provide a vehicle for citizens to help each other.

“This project was just one great example of how Cobb’s business and non-profit communities have pulled together to get help to those who need it,” said Sharon Mason, president and CEO of the Cobb Chamber. “Our goal was to find a way to keep our restaurants afloat while providing a valuable resource to our non-profits who are serving people in need. Operation Meal Plan was a way to link these entities together.”

In its first couple of months, Operation Meal Plan received $89,000 in community contributions, funding 13,850 meals delivered by 22 different restaurants and caterers to 30 different non-profit organizations around Cobb, all of which serve meals as part of their mission.

At the end of May, Operation Meal Plan went on hiatus when Cobb’s board of commissioners allocated $1 million from its CARES Act dollars for the Cobb County Food Grant, providing an alternative source for funding of these meals for the non-profits. Remaining dollars, including a half of a $50,000 total contribution to CCF from Lockheed-Martin, would be held for distribution in the fall.

The grants, payable to six different organizations in increments of $3,000 to $6,000, will be used to purchase prepared meals from Cobb restaurants or catering businesses. “Ten months in to this pandemic, non-profit staff members and volunteers desperately need a break,” said Shari Martin, CCF’s president and CEO. “In many cases, they have been serving significantly more clients, and in all cases, they are doing so with far fewer people. Not only are these grants going to provide some financial relief, they are also going to provide some physical and emotional relief.”

Center for Children and Young Adults (CCYA) – $6,000

LiveSAFE Resources – $4,500

The Table on Delk – $3,500

Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health – $3,500

The Zone – $6,500

The Extension – $3,000

Interested in helping others navigate the challenges of the pandemic? Let us help you! Call us at 770-859-2366 or email CCFTeam@cobbfoundation.org.

Cobb public health director: Limit ‘non-essential’ activity

November 21, 2020 3:06 PMNovember 21, 2020 1:25 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb public health director, Cobb COVID cases — *After a recent drop in the 7-day moving average of COVID cases in Cobb, that figure has risen to more than 100 a day. Source: Georgia Department of Public Health. **Click here for more**.*

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, the director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health said rising COVID-19 cases are stressing hospital capacity and she’s urging the public to reduce “non-essential” activities for the time being.

That includes limiting gatherings such as parties and weddings, which she said have been common sources for what she said is “pretty substantial community transmission” in Cobb County.

In a videotaped message posted Friday by Cobb County Government (see below), Dr. Janet Memark said hospitals are at near capacity with new COVID-related admissions—up nearly 20 percent in recent weeks—and there’s only one critical care bed left.

“These are very dangerous times for us,” said Memark, who didn’t provide any hospital figures. “The weather is going to get colder and we’re moving inside and there’s increased travel.”

She said citizens “know what works”—wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing—but “we should try to do our best and not go out and do too many things that are not essential at this point.”

She recommended against eating out in crowded places and going to bars, because along with weddings and other social gatherings, “that is where we are having the transmission.”

On Friday, there were 186 new reported cases of COVID-19 in Cobb, continuing a rising trend in November.

For the month, there have been 2,453 new cases in the county, for an average of 122 a day. Since March, Cobb has 25,178 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Cobb also has 487 deaths, the second-most in Georgia, and 26 have been reported this month.

That data is according to the date that cases and deaths are reported to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Its daily status report is issued in the afternoon.

In East Cobb, there have been 5,319 COVID-19 cases and 102 deaths as of Nov. 9, according to a ZIP Code map compiled by Commissioner Bob Ott.

Another set of metrics—date of “onset,” or when a positive COVID case is confirmed, and date of death—also is on the rise in Cobb.

The 14-day moving average of cases according to date of onset (in the chart at the top) was 115 a day as of Nov. 7. After a summer surge of cases, that figure had dropped to 37 a day in late September.

Another indicator used to monitor community spread is a 14-day average of cases per 100,000 people. That now stands at 271—100 is considered “high community spread”—and it has been a figure Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale relied on earlier in the school year regarding reopening.

But he told Cobb Board of Education members this week “there are no metrics” in determining classroom or school closures, and that each situation will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

There have been no closures since Cobb students opting for face-to-face learning returned to schools.

On Friday, the Cobb County School District reported 106 new COVID cases among teachers and staff, and 105 the week before that.

Of the 721 cases reported in the district since July 1, 434 have come since students began returning to school.

Memark has said that she’s not seeing transmission in the schools—a point Ragsdale also made to the school board—but she said students going to school and adults going to work who are sick “is happening way too often, and it is going to be a major problem for everybody.”

She said that the schools will continue to be “disrupted by this,” and urged parents to determine what environment is best for their children.

Cobb school district parents have until Nov. 29 to decide learning options for the spring semester, although another choice window could open in the spring.

Across the country, Memark said only three states are not seeing surges in new COVID-19 cases.

“If you have people who are medically fragile or are coming from areas that have very high rates like us, you’re definitely at risk of exposure or exposing others to COVID at this time,” she said.

There have been nearly 400,000 reported COVID-19 cases in Georgia and 8,591 deaths. Since last Sunday, there have been 11,477 cases reported according to date of report, and 5,232 according to date of onset.

In that time, there have been 144 deaths reported according to date of report and 49 by date of death in Georgia.

More COVID-19 information and resources from Cobb and Douglas Public Health can be found here.

Cobb Elections explains post-recount shredding activities

November 24, 2020 6:31 PMNovember 20, 2020 8:32 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Absentee Ballot Envelope — *Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said white privacy envelopes were among the items shredded Friday, but no ballots of any kind were destroyed.*

After wrapping up a hand recount of votes in the presidential race, the Cobb Board of Elections and Registrations on Friday responded to social media postings about shredding activities near its recount location at Jim Miller Park.

UPDATED Tuesday, Nov. 24: Cobb government says the social media posting of another video alleging the shredding of ballots was in fact part of routine shredding activities for materials from the Cobb Tax Commissioner’s Office. A county spokesman said no documents from the Cobb Elections Office were shredded.

In a release issued through Cobb County Government spokesman Ross Cavitt, Cobb Elections said the items that were being shredded were mailing labels, completed and “checked off” reports, sticky notes and other papers and documents.

Voters were mailed two envelopes as part of their absentee ballot package. One was a “white privacy envelope” that contained the actual absentee ballot. The privacy envelope was then placed in a larger mailing envelope that contained the voter’s signature.

The privacy envelopes were among the items that were also shredded—after the election was certified—but not the mailing envelopes with the signatures.

None of the shredded materials were ballots, according to the statement, which quotes Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler:

“None of these items are relevant to the election or the re-tally. Everything of consequence, including the ballots, absentee ballot applications with signatures, and anything else used in the count or re-tally remains on file. After an out-of-context video was shared on social media we contacted state officials to reassure them this was a routine clean-up operation and they could inspect our stored materials if they wish.”

Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney who’s filed a lawsuit for the Trump campaign contesting the Georgia presidential results, posted several times Friday on his Twitter account with videos shot at the park by others.

In a post published at 3:27 p.m., he wrote:

Looks to me like they may be destroying election documents in Cobb County, GA.

What do you think?#FightBack Against Election Crimes pic.twitter.com/RXzsDGYboN

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) November 20, 2020

The Cobb Elections release was issued about 10 minutes later, but Wood did not respond to that denial. His Tweets after that were focused on Kyle Rittenhouse, a Wisconsin teenager accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha and who was released on $2 million bail.

After absentee and other final ballots had been initially counted, Democratic former vice president Joe Biden had a lead of 14,116 votes over Trump.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered a hand recount—something that hadn’t been done in the state before—and after that was complete, the results indicated that Biden’s lead was 12,670 votes.

On Friday, the Georgia board of elections certified all the election results, including the presidential race, and Gov. Brian Kemp signed off on the certification.

There were several thousand uncounted ballots found during the recounts in four counties (Cobb was not among them), including more than 2,000 in Floyd County, where the elections supervisor was fired.

“The vast majority of local elections officials did their job well,” Kemp said, citing circumstances related to COVID-19 that led to unprecedented absentee balloting.

He urged legislators to make changes, including a voter ID requirement for absentee ballots.

The Trump campaign has until the end of Tuesday to request a computerized recount, which would serve as the official vote tally.

Georgia’s 16 electoral votes are slated to go to Biden, the first Democrat to win the state in the presidential race since Bill Clinton in 1992.

The official tally now stands at Biden with 2,474,507 votes (49.51 percent) to 2,461,837 for Trump (49.25 percent).

Libertarian Jo Jorgensen received 62,138 votes, or 1.24 percent.

Raffensperger has been under fire since Georgia’s presidential vote-counting swung from Trump, who held a 370,000-vote lead on election night, to the slender Biden lead following the absentee counting.

Georgia’s U.S. Senators, Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, demanded his resignation, as the Trump campaign alleged voter fraud in Georgia and several other states that were close—and that all eventually went to Biden.

On Friday, Raffensperger said that even though he’s a Republican and Trump supporter, “the numbers don’t lie” and he has the duty to certify the results.

“The numbers reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision by the secretary of state’s office or of courts or of either campaign,” he said.

In Cobb, Biden got 56 percent of the vote.

Cobb Elections officials will be working at Jim Miller Park through the Jan. 5 runoff for both U.S. Senate seats from Georgia as a well as a runoff for the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Cobb schools report 106 new COVID cases; 434 since October

November 20, 2020 2:31 PM by Wendy Parker

For the second week in a row, more than 100 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the Cobb County School District.

The district posted this week’s update on Friday noting an additional 106 cases this week, for 721 overall since July 1. All the cases are confirmed by Cobb and Douglas Public Health.

The cases are for staff, teachers and students but aren’t broken down further.

When elementary schools students began returning for face-to-face instruction on October 5, there had been 287 cases to that point.

Since then, 434 cases have been reported as the reopening continued. Here’s how those figures have risen week-by-week:

October 9: 324 (elementary return)
October 16: 349
October 23: 382 (middle school return)
October 30: 443
Nov. 6: 511 (high school return)
Nov. 13: 615
Nov. 20: 721

Last week, the first week of reporting since the arrival of high school students, there were 105 new cases at 53 schools.

This week’s 106 cases also are spread out at 53 schools, including most of the high schools.

All of the schools reported 10 cases or less, which has been the case since the district first began reporting weekly totals in October.

Here are the following schools in East Cobb with new cases this week:

Elementary Schools: Addison, Blackwell, Davis, Mountain View; Nicholson; Rocky Mount, Sedalia Park, Shallowford Falls, Sope Creek, Tritt
Middle Schools: Dickerson, Dodgen, Mabry, McCleskey, Simpson
High Schools: Lassiter, Pope, Walton, Wheeler

Only Dickerson Middle School had not previously reported any cases.

On Thursday, Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said that he’s not planning a return to all-virtual learning, in the wake of rising case numbers in the schools and in the county.

He said Cobb and Douglas Public Health officials told him the virus isn’t spreading in the schools, and any decisions to close classrooms or schools will be made on a “case-by-case basis.”

He said there was a school that caused some concern, but health officials determined multiple cases weren’t related and the school remained open.

No Cobb schools or classrooms have been closed since students returned in October.

“There is not going to be trigger or a number or a level,” Ragsdale said to the school board, prompting an exchange with board member Jaha Howard.

Ragsdale said over the summer, when the county’s 14-day average of cases per 100,000 people was spiking extremely high—nearly 400—that was his baseline for deciding to start the year all-virtual.

The reopening began after that number dropped close to 200, and for a while in Cobb it hovered around 100, which is considered “high community spread.”

That average is now back in the mid-200s, and Ragsdale said Thursday that “we are in a different time than we were in the summer.”

Since face-to-face learning resumed, teachers have had to instruct students in their classrooms and those at home simultaneously.

Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators told school board members Thursday that “right now, our teachers are so overworked. They are at their breaking report.”

She asked that the district provide a written policy about how it’s following data during the pandemic, giving teachers the option in the second semester of teaching all-virtual if they have medical conditions that make it unsafe to teach from school, and provide bus drivers with masks for students who don’t have them.

Parents of Cobb school district students have until Nov. 29 to choose their child’s learning option for the spring semester, and Ragsdale said it’s possible a second window could open up for that purpose depending on any possible COVID case spike over the winter.

On Friday, the district is sending home with students a “symptom letter” written by Cobb and Douglas Public Health advising families on how to reduce the spread of the virus and stay safe during the Thanksgiving holidays.

Here’s the test of that message:

Dear Parents and Caregivers of Cobb County School District Students:

The Fall season has brought cooler weather, but also a rise of 100% over the last few weeks in COVID 19 cases in our county. We were already in the high transmission category, but this new rise in cases jeopardizes all the progress that has been made to this point. Not only are we seeing very high transmission rates, but our hospitals are now nearing capacity. Surges in many states throughout the nation show us that we have not yet controlled this virus. We in public health are deeply concerned with cold weather moving us indoors, the anticipated holiday travel, and the COVID fatigue that has made our community to be less likely to wear masks or keep our distance from others.

The importance of keeping our children in school is indisputable. At this critical juncture, we need to work together to keep that a reality for us all.

Cobb and Douglas Public Health (CDPH) is working with the school staff and parents to contain isolated cases of COVID-19 throughout the schools. Due to federal HIPAA laws, we try our best to protect the privacy of the affected individuals in each case. We wanted to take this time to remind of you of best practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please remember, DO NOT send your children to school when they have symptoms of COVID- 19. These symptoms include, but are not limited to:

Cough

Shortness of breath

Fever

Muscle aches

Sore throat

Headaches

Congestion/runny nose

Diarrhea

We have received multiple reports of parents sending their children to school while sick. We understand the burden of having to keep children home when they are sick, but sending sick children to school can endanger other children and staff, as well. Free Covid-19 tests are provided by CDPH in the form of nasal self swabs and results are available within 1-2 days.

Also remember that any child who is in direct contact with a family member positive for COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes ACCUMULATED, over 24 hours during the isolation period is a close contact and should not be sent to school. They must quarantine. Not doing so, endangers the health of other children and the community at large.

These orders are in accordance with O.C.G.A. §§ 31-2A-4(4) and 31-12-4, Chapter 511-9- 1 of the Rules of the Georgia Department of Public Health.

We also ask that you all help us to contain the spread of COVID-19 within our community. Wearing masks, washing hands, social distancing, and avoiding crowds of people will go a long way in winning this battle.

Please contact us at www.cobbanddouglashealth.org for more information on COVID-19 or to sign up for a free test.

For additional information, please visit the Georgia Department of Public Health website:

Isolation Guidance: https://dph.georgia.gov/isolation-contact

Quarantine Guidance: https://dph.georgia.gov/contact

COVID-19 Daily Status Report: https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report

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Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb food scores: Camp’s; Barista’s; schools; more

November 20, 2020 1:29 PMNovember 20, 2020 9:02 AM by Wendy Parker

Camps Kitchen and Bar, East Cobb food scores

The following East Cobb food scores from Nov. 16-19 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:

Barista’s
4932 Lower Roswell Road
November 16, 2020 Score: 83, Grade: B

Camp’s Kitchen and Bar
255 Village Parkway, Suite 310
November 18, 2020 Score: 80, Grade: B

Hightower Trail Middle School
3905 Post Oak Tritt Road
November 17, 2020 Score: 100, Grade: A

Pope High School
3001 Hembree Road
November 19, 2020 Score: 100, Grade: A

Pope HS Culinary Arts Department
3001 Hembree Road
November 19, 2020 Score: 88, Grade: B

Starbuck’s Coffee
1207 Johnson Ferry Road
November 20, 2020 Score: 96, Grade: A

Walton High School
1590 Bill Murdock Road
November 20, 2020 Score: 96, Grade: A

Willy’s Mexicana Grill
2900 Delk Road, Suite 8
November 17, 2020 Score: 83, Grade: B

Cobb school board member rips colleagues for ‘systemic racism’

November 21, 2020 7:56 PMNovember 19, 2020 8:16 PM by Wendy Parker

A strongly divided Cobb Board of Education engaged in more vitriolic rhetoric Thursday after the board’s Republican majority approved two measures a black Democratic member said were examples of “systemic racism.”

Jaha Howard, Cobb school board member — *Jaha Howard*

During a board work session Thursday afternoon, the board voted to abolish a newly-approved committee to examine naming policies for Cobb school district schools and buildings.

The board also approved a measure requiring a four-vote majority for board members to place items on the meeting agenda.

The votes were both 4-2, with the four Republicans—all white males—voting in favor: Chairman Brad Wheeler, vice chairman David Banks, David Chastain and Randy Scamihorn.

The two voting against were Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard, both black Democrats.

Board member David Morgan, a black Democrat from South Cobb, was absent from the work session.

The naming policy committee was approved by a 4-3 vote in August at the behest of Morgan, who said there is not a school in the 113-school Cobb district named after an African-American.

His proposal came after online petitions were started over the summer demanding name changes for Walton and Wheeler high schools in East Cobb. Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, signed the Wheeler petition.

The naming policy committee was to have included school board members and citizens, and Wheeler was the only Republican to vote in favor of it.

But he said at Thursday’s work session that he had “reconsidered” his vote because he thought that naming of schools should be a matter for elected board members, not an appointed committee.

“We shouldn’t delegate board authority,” Wheeler said. Nothing has happened since the August vote, and the committee had not been formed.

Jaha Howard, a first-term Democrat from the Campbell and Osborne clusters, lashed out, saying the board was being asked “to undo something that hasn’t been done.”

Howard said getting rid of the committee amounted to “systemic racism,” and ignored Wheeler’s explanation that he changed his mind after seeking community feedback.

Howard said it was still racism, and pressed Wheeler to say if he thought it was fair that there’s a school in the district named after a Confederate general (Wheeler HS).

Wheeler, who’s generally mild-mannered, took strong objection to Howard’s allegations of racism.

“That’s your opinion, not mine,” Wheeler said angrily. “We can change a vote.”

He also told Howard that “I am not a Confederate,” and ruled him out of order, reminding him he was chairing the meeting.

Matters got more acrimonious from there, when Scamihorn proposed a measure requiring board members to get a board majority before placing items on meeting agendas.

Scamihorn didn’t describe what he was proposing, but said it was needed to streamline the length of board meetings and do away items that that weren’t relevant.

Previously, board business items needed the approval of three members, the chairman or the superintendent to be placed on the agenda.

Scamihorn’s measure was not included in the board’s meeting agenda packet; when East Cobb News asked a district spokeswoman for a copy of his proposal, she said it wouldn’t be available until Friday.

Howard and Davis both objected strenuously to Scamihorn’s proposal, saying it smacked of censorship.

“This board doesn’t want any dissenting opinions,” Howard said, calling Scamihorn’s proposal “a rubber stamp for the superintendent.”

Banks interrupted him, and for a while he and Howard tried to shout over one another.

During his re-election campaign this fall, Banks said in an East Cobb News interview that Howard and Davis “are trying to make race an issue where it has never been before.”

Davis quickly accused Banks of “spewing racist trash” but has not directly addressed him at meetings as Howard has done.

The board also was unable to come to a consensus about an anti-racism resolution this summer after some of the Republican members objected to language demanded by Howard that “systemic racism” exists in the Cobb County School District.

At Thursday’s work session, Howard said Scamihorn’s proposal was “a maneuver to silence the minority.” Banks objected again, before Wheeler gaveled him down.

Howard said the matter was no different than when the Republican majority voted in 2019 to prevent board members from offering comments during board meetings.

He and Davis both then decried what they said was censorship aimed specifically at them.

“This same thing is playing out again,” Howard said, once again accusing his colleagues of systemic racism. “It’s extremely short-sighted and disgusting.”

He said he was disappointed in his colleagues and the superintendent, and said that “all of our voices matter.”

He also noted the timing of the measures, coming right after Wheeler, Scamihorn and Banks were all re-elected, maintaining the board’s Republican majority. Morgan, who did not seek re-election, will be succeeded by Democrat Tre’ Hutchins.

Davis asked of her Republican colleagues: “What are you afraid of?” She cited the school communities of a number of schools—including several in East Cobb—whose interests she said she could not advocate for if Scamihorn’s proposal were approved.

Addressing his response through Wheeler, Scamihorn said “I’m going to take it as a rhetorical question, but I don’t know what we need to be afraid of.”

He added that there was “no attempt to censor” any board member.

After the work session, Howard fired away on his Facebook page, saying that “systemic racism will support a person who doesn’t want to openly discuss safety during a freaking pandemic partially because outspoken Black people are the ones asking tough questions.”

He also said “systemic racism tells a colleague to essentially ‘shut up and dribble.’ ”

Several Wheeler High School students who support changing the school name spoke to board members during their Thursday evening meeting, condemning the vote to abolish the naming policy committee.

“It seems that you are actively working to silence what’s been started,” said Sydney Spessard, a senior. “It’s shameful that you don’t have the decency to follow through” to create the committee.

“Systemic racism is not an opinion. It is a reality,” she said.

Cobb school superintendent: ‘No metrics’ for COVID closures

November 19, 2020 4:09 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb school superintendent COVID closures

Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that decisions on closing classrooms or schools in the district due to COVID-19 cases are being addressed on a “case by case” basis.

During a Cobb Board of Education work session, Ragsdale said “there are no metrics” for determining those decisions, unlike countywide public health data he relied on this summer.

No classrooms or schools in the Cobb County School District have closed since students returned for face-to-face learning in October and early November.

Ragsdale said “I’m not looking to take the district back to 100 percent virtual,” a reference to some online speculation that such an option was being considered.

He said there was a school that posed enough of concern about COVID cases that Cobb and Douglas Public Health was asked examine case data there.

He said when contact tracing details revealed no “linkage” between cases, the decision was made to keep open the school, which he did not identify.

“There is not going to be trigger or a number or a level,” Ragsdale said in response to a question by school board member Charisse Davis about how possible closings are being addressed.

He said that he’s in regular contact with Cobb and Douglas Public Health, which has concluded that the schools are not spreaders of the virus, compared to restaurants, churches and other activities and events indoors.

A case-by-case approach is a different criteria than what Ragsdale had used in keeping schools online at the start of the school year, and then gradually reopening for in-person learning.

In the late summer he said that overall COVID cases in Cobb needed to drop to a 14-day average of 200 people per 100,000 population. At that point, that average was in the 300s.

“We are in a different time than we were in the summer,” Ragsdale said. “We have to be adaptable in this process.”

The district has been updating COVID-19 case figures every Friday. As of last week 328 of the 610 reported cases since July 1 have occurred since students returned to schools.

Last week’s total of 105 cases was the biggest one-week jump since students returned, and came two weeks after the return of high school students, the final phase of the reopening.

There were 53 schools that had reported cases last week, including 13 of 17 high school campuses.

The school district updates those figures at this link every Friday.

Ragsdale didn’t refer to any of that in his remarks, but urged parents to visit the district’s website for “factual” information about COVID information and protocols, instead of social media.

That sparked a testy exchange between Ragsdale and board member Jaha Howard, who thought that suggestion “does not seem sufficient, not by a longshot.”

Parents of students in the Cobb school district have until Nov. 29 to decide spring semester learning options, and Ragsdale said there could be another window in the spring due to rising cases expected over the winter.

“We’re seeing cases spike up but not in the schools,” Ragsdale said.

Earlier in the fall, Cobb’s overall 14-day average of cases per 100,000 fell briefly to under 100, which is considered high community spread. But that number has been steadily been going up since October, and as of Thursday it stood at 244.

Howard said this was the first he was hearing “that we’re not using those data points” and asked that board members get communications with data that is being utilized, instead of just going to the district’s website.

Then board member Randy Scamihorn interrupted, and Howard objected, and chairman Brad Wheeler upheld Howard’s complaint.

Howard said he was frustrated that not only as a board member but as a parent that he didn’t know more than what was on the district’s website.

Ragsdale told him that “there is a lot of uncertainty that we’re dealing with on a daily basis,” and that he was reluctant to disclose the possibility of another choice window in the spring, since that information that will be bandied about on social media and elsewhere.

He said while no decision has been made about that, it is still being considered, and that not all discussions within the superintendent’s cabinet are for public consumption.

Ragsdale has been a frequent critic of social media, and in recent days chatter on some social media platforms has included claims that the district’s COVID-19 case counts are being underreported.

At every school that has reported COVID cases, the district maintains that fewer that 10 cases have occurred in each week of reporting. The only exception is Harrison High School, which reported exactly 10 cases last week.

Ragsdale said that with Thanksgiving coming up next week and the holiday season approaching, all school district families will be getting a “symptom letter” on Friday written by Cobb and Douglas Public Health urging students and staff who have COVID symptoms to stay home.

It’s part of a message of caution Ragsdale said is needed “to maintain our due diligence during the holidays.

“We can be thankful but at the same time we need to be cautiously thankful.”

Empty Bowl Gift Bags sale replaces Empty Bowl Brunch event

November 20, 2020 2:35 PMNovember 19, 2020 1:51 PM by Wendy Parker

The Empty Bowl Brunch holiday event that takes place every December at The Art Place isn’t being held due to COVID-19 reasons, but the fundraiser is still taking place in a different form.

Here’s what The Art Place is doing instead; the gift bags will go on sale starting Friday at 4 p.m.: Empty Bowl Cook Book flyer

In order to maintain our Empty Bowl tradition, and keep our patrons safe, we’ve decided to make Empty Bowl Gift Bags.

Empty Bowl Gift Bags will go on sale for $30 at Artplacemarietta.org/store.

Each bag will contain 2 bowls (made by the TAP pottery department), 2 coupons to GreenWise Market to get soup from their amazing soup bar, and 1 cookbook.

The cookbook is filled with recipes from 20 years of empty bowl including some of the most popular soups!

Bags will be ready for pick up December 7th-18th. They are the perfect holiday gift, or a great way to carry on the Empty Bowl tradition until we can be together again.

We only have 75 bags available for sale, so make sure you order early! All proceeds benefit the Mountain View Arts Alliance this year to help support Arts Programming during this difficult time.

More about the MVAA can be found by clicking here.

ARC: 13% of Cobb residents lost jobs/furloughed since COVID

November 18, 2020 4:40 PM by Wendy Parker

Submitted information:

13% of Cobb County residents who were employed before the pandemic were laid-off, terminated, or furloughed due to the COVID-19 virus, and 14% of residents have received help from a food bank since March, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission’s 2020 Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey, released today [Nov. 13] at the agency’s virtual State of the Region Breakfast.

These were among findings from new survey questions that gauged how the pandemic and related economic downturn has affected the Atlanta region. Highlights include:

42% of all responding said that they either had hours or waged reduced or had to quit for safety reasons.

Half of Cobb residents said they knew someone who had contracted COVID-19.

43% of Cobb workers said they had worked from home as a result of the pandemic — the highest percentage of any of metro Atlanta’s ten counties.

This year’s survey also provided insights into the state of race relations in metro Atlanta, a topic that drew heightened attention during this summer’s demonstrations. On a new question this year, 71% of Cobb residents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “Discrimination against Black people in the United States is a serious problem.”

Other Cobb highlights included:

Residents named public health (18%) the biggest problem facing the region, followed by crime (17%).

11% of Cobb residents are only slightly or not at all confident in their ability to make their next mortgage or rent payment.

28% of Cobb residents wouldn’t be able to cover a $400 financial emergency could do so only by selling something or borrowing money or didn’t know how they would pay.

Regional Results:

One in four respondents said they had been laid-off, terminated, or furloughed because of the virus.

Nearly half (45%) of responses indicated they’d experienced reduced hours or wages or had to quit their jobs for safety reasons.

Nearly 1 in 5 (18%) received help from a food bank since March.

Nearly 58% said they knew someone who had contracted COVID-19.

One-third of respondents said they had worked from home as a result of the pandemic.

Nearly 12% of survey respondents named race relations as the region’s biggest concern, compared to just 4% in 2019. And more than three-quarters of respondents (77%) either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “Discrimination against Black people in the United States is a serious problem.”

Race relations is a particular issue of concern to young adults ages 18-34, the survey showed. Among respondents in this age group, 90% said they agreed or strongly agreed that discrimination against Black people is a serious problem, compared to 64% of those age 65 and older.

“This year’s Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey demonstrates how the pandemic and related economic fallout have exacerbated long-standing disparities in our community,” said Doug Hooker, Executive Director of the Atlanta Regional Commission. “Now, more than ever, we need to come together, actively listen to one another, and forge solutions to act upon, so we can build bridges of understanding and pathways toward progress, which create a region that works for all residents.”

The 2020 survey, conducted by Kennesaw State University’s A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research, asked questions of 4,400 people across 10 counties about key quality-of-life issues. Survey results are statistically valid for each of those 10 counties and the city of Atlanta, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5% for the 10-county region as a whole and plus or minus 3.8% to 5% for the individual jurisdictions.

The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta is a supporter of the 2020 Metro Atlanta Speaks survey.

For additional information about the 2020 survey, including county level results, please visit atlantaregional.org/metroatlantaspeaks.

Parkaire update: Moe’s closes; Flying Biscuit opening TBA

November 23, 2020 6:46 PMNovember 18, 2020 8:18 AM by Wendy Parker

Moe's Parkaire closes

A reader alerted us to the closure of the Moe’s Southwest Grill at Parkaire Landing, which occurred in late October, after nearly 20 years in business.

ToNeTo Atlanta reported over the weekend that it’s the second Moe’s in East Cobb to close recently, along with a location at Shallowford Corners Shopping Center.

As for the Parkaire space, the standalone building at 688 Johnson Ferry Road, between Tijuana Joe’s and Regions Bank, will soon become a gusto! quick-serve spot.

Based in Atlanta, gusto! has seven restaurants in the area and recently opened at Avalon in Alpharetta. The menu includes salads, bowls and wraps, many with Tex-Mex ingredients.

A long-awaited restaurant opening at Parkaire is reportedly getting closer but there’s still no specific date that’s been announced.

That’s the Flying Biscuit Cafe, slated to open in winter 2020. The restaurant’s social media accounts have been updating with new photos and related postings—chicken and waffles have been added to chain’s menu.

The restaurant received its business license today, but for now the opening date is still TBA.

Flying Biscuit announced its return to East Cobb last August, and was preparing to open this past spring when COVID-19 came. An old “coming soon” sign has been taken down, and it looks as though some renovating work is still continuing.

They’re updating on their Facebook page.

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